


The Space Between

by starlurker



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Amnesia, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-09
Updated: 2010-04-09
Packaged: 2017-10-08 20:00:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/79007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlurker/pseuds/starlurker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teyla wakes up and everything is different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Space Between

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cesare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cesare/gifts).



> Written for random_fic_is_random.
> 
> Original prompt: An SGA story in which the team (John, Teyla, Ronon and Rodney) lose their memories on a mission (that is, only their episodic memories; they still retain all functional memories) and try to figure out their origins, relationships, and reasons for being wherever they are. Conclude it however you like, they don't have to learn the truth by the end. Also, gen is fine, though a slash and/or OT4 vibe would be appreciated. ;-)

Teyla sees John and Rodney sitting down on the floor looking unconscious, but does not recognize the tall man with hair like coils of rope on his head. She springs to her feet quickly, drawing a knife hidden in her boot and goes into her battle stance.

"Where is Ford?" she asks John and Rodney. She keeps her knife pointed squarely at the stranger, who to his credit, seems unafraid.

"Teyla," John says, approaching from her left with his palms up in the air, Rodney following behind him. "His name is Ronon, and he's a friend. Drop the knife, okay? Where the hell were you hiding that anyway?"

Teyla puts down her knife and looks around the room, taking care to keep her distance from the stranger despite John and Rodney's reassurances. She takes note of the featureless, smooth walls with no grips and no windows. One corner is filled with their weapons; she recognizes her guns lying on top of the pile. The ceiling above has a vent which she assumes their captors have included for air. The walls are filled with writing; Teyla recognizes John's spiky letters, Rodney's clear block letters, her own unadorned writing and what she assumes is the stranger's beautiful, linked letters. Her stomach sinks when she reads the notes: _WE ARE A TEAM!_ And below that:

_My name is Teyla Emmagan and I am the sole woman in this group of four men.  
My name is Ronon Dex and I'm the tallest man, the only one with a beard and a long hair.  
My name is Rodney McKay, astrophysicist, and I have a red and white flag on my uniform.  
My name is John Sheppard and I'm the one with dark hair and stars and stripes on my shirt._

"What has happened to us?" she asks Rodney and John, careful not to let the fear be detected in her voice.

"As far as I can figure it," Rodney states with some of his bluster missing, "this room is adapted from Ancient technology. Part of their Ascension experiments to separate the mind from the body."

"And how did you come to this conclusion?"

"Crazy enough to be true," the man called Ronon says. Rodney casts an irritated glance at Ronon, then walks away from the conversation. He has what the Terrans call a Sharpie and he starts writing the same message on the room's four walls.

_Calm down. Breathe. It's hard, I know. But look around before swinging. They're taking away our memories, one by one._

Teyla understands then why her weapons are in the corner and feels her chest tighten with fear. Rodney's hands are shaking as he writes, and Teyla knows that when the time comes, out of the four of them, he will be the least likely to defend himself successfully, even with a gun. That their weapons are not with them is pointless, not when she knows how John fights, not when she knows she can kill Rodney with one well aimed kick, and Ronon looks like he knows how to fight well. They all have to trust enough in their instinct to ask questions first and shoot later.

***

The room is bathed in white light. She feels a tingling in her arms and legs, there is a ringing in her ears and a throbbing headache building behind her eyes that is excruciating. But it eases, it blessedly eases and she sinks to her knees and falls asleep, grateful.

***

Teyla is immediately aware of danger, but she stays lying down, paying attention to the sounds around her. There is scuffling, sounds of fists being thrown, then the click of metal hitting metal. She feels the alien fabric around her and wonders where she is briefly when she recognizes the voice of the man from the city on the sea. John.

"Ronon, he's a friend. His name is Rodney McKay and he's harmless. Look at him, he's not a threat. Read the goddamned walls!"

The man who must be Ronon speaks in Satedan and Teyla understands it; the man is saying that he doesn't recognize any of them or the writing on the walls.

"Don't make me shoot you, buddy," John says, his voice raw. Teyla rises swiftly – she has heard enough.

"Ronon?" she asks quietly. She sees John look at her with relief, the man Ronon with distrust. "We have not met, but I know John," she says, speaking in Satedan and pointing to John, "and his people mean no harm." She takes notice of the pale man's face gasping for breath in Ronon's arms, obviously feeling the pressure of what Teyla thinks is the Satedan air grip, meant to incapacitate the enemy while keeping them conscious. "My name is Teyla Emmagan," she says, trying to assert the calmness she is not feeling in her voice. "His name is John. I do not know the name of his companion, but I truly believe they only mean to help. Please let him go."

Ronon releases the pale man by pushing him in John's direction. The pale man wheezes for breath near John's feet, and she hears John ask him if he's "OK." Ronon is no less dangerous though as he draws knives from his hair and stakes a corner of the room that they are occupying. Teyla braces herself for a fight and wishes desperately for her weapons.

"I'm a Runner," Ronon says, gesturing his head towards John and the other man. "You don't take any chances. You take everyone out first."

"I understand," Teyla says, and explains to John, who nods gratefully. The other man is still having difficulty breathing normally.

"Listen to me, all of you," John says. "We are a team from the city of Atlantis. His name is Rodney McKay," pointing to the man still struggling for breath on his feet, "and we have a common enemy. We fight the Wraith, all four of us, along with a bunch of other people. We're friends, we're captives in this fucking stupid room, and it's taking away your memories." Teyla speaks in Satedan for Ronon's benefit, stumbling over certain words in Satedan and not understanding the peculiar words in John's.

"Why can't he understand us?" John asks Teyla. She does not know either.

"How is it that you know us and we do not know you?" she asks John.

John's face twists into a grimace. "It doesn't work on me," he says bitterly.

***

The room is bathed in white light. She feels a tingling in her arms and legs, there is a ringing in her ears and a throbbing headache building behind her eyes that is excruciating. But it eases, it blessedly eases and she sinks to her knees and falls asleep, grateful.

***

Someone steps on her hand and Teyla is immediately awake and decides that is knowledge enough. She springs to her feet and sees a pale man on the corner unconscious, blood leaking from two stab wounds on his chest. A man with dark hair is struggling with a giant man, and the man with dark hair is clearly losing. The tall man flings him on the other side of the wall and turns his attention on her.

"I do not want to fight," she says, "but I think you will find that I am more than capable of giving you one. Choose wisely, stranger."

The stranger speaks in Satedan, saying that he does not understand, that he woke up in a strange room with the man he was fighting pointing something that looked like a Wraith weapon at him. He is clearly confused and angry, fighting to survive a strange situation and Teyla would soften at the thought if she did not think that this man was dangerous.

"I do not know what is happening either—" she trails off in Satedan, tilting her head as a question.

"Ronon," he answers.

"I do not know what is happening either, Ronon. But I speak your language, and I may be able to understand the stranger's as well."

Ronon walks cautiously to her side; Teyla gives him a wide berth.

The stranger is crawling towards the injured man. "Rodney, get up," the stranger says, and Teyla is surprised to discover that she understands.

"I will not fight you," she says to the crawling man, "but please help me understand."

The man turns to them with bruised eyes. "My name is John," he says, his voice broken in some way. "His name is Rodney, you're Teyla and he's Ronon. We're a team, we're friends, but we stumbled into people we shouldn't have run into, and they put us in this room. It's taking away your memories one by one," he says. "And before you ask, it doesn't work on me."

Teyla translates for Ronon, and shares her belief that the man is telling the truth. Ronon looks at her with doubt, but clearly knows there is nothing else to go on either.

"How can we help?" she asks.

John laughs, and it is painful to hear. "Sorry, sorry," he says. "It feels like I've been in this nightmare for years. You guys get it fresh every time at least." He gets to Rodney's side and starts looking at Rodney's wounds. "Teyla, I need your help. Please."

Teyla walks to Rodney's side and strips away the strange material covering his chest. She looks at the wounds and knows that they are severe. She looks at John's face and knows that she was not successful in hiding her thoughts. His face hardens like stone.

"Please, just do what you can," he asks. John lies beside Rodney and puts a hand on Rodney's shoulder. Teyla gets the impression that he is close to begging. She reaches for Rodney's chest—

***

The room is bathed in white light. She feels a tingling in her arms and legs, there's a ringing in her ears and a throbbing headache building behind her eyes that is excruciating. But it eases, it blessedly eases and she sinks to her knees and falls asleep, grateful.

When she wakes up, Teyla remembers everything. She thinks _Rodney! Rodney!_ She gets to work with what she has on hand, her friends equally desperate, and sends a quiet prayer asking for the odds to turn in their favour, just this once.

END

**Author's Note:**

> Some minor changes from original post due to clean up.


End file.
